Morrissey A-Z: "Dagenham Dave"

He's done a few of these ultra-lightweight songs, but I wonder - which was the first? Was 'My Love Life' the first where the lyrics seemed like they could be scribbled on the back of a stamp? "I know you love one person but why you don't you love two. Give a little something to me love life". Repeat 47 times, slowly fade out.
 
He's done a few of these ultra-lightweight songs, but I wonder - which was the first? Was 'My Love Life' the first where the lyrics seemed like they could be scribbled on the back of a stamp? "I know you love one person but why you don't you love two. Give a little something to me love life". Repeat 47 times, slowly fade out.
Ha! I remember being really pissed off when "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" came out because the lyrics seemed so flimsy.

(Obviously I was wrong, with hindsight.)
 
Nowadays, there are too many examples of errors and misuses of language in Morrissey songs to even notice when they happen, but at the time his use of "window screen" instead of "windscreen" really stuck out. Terrible, clunky, stupid lyrics.
 
Nowadays, there are too many examples of errors and misuses of language in Morrissey songs to even notice when they happen, but at the time his use of "window screen" instead of "windscreen" really stuck out. Terrible, clunky, stupid lyrics.
I've always chalked that up to a UK-reference. Is this not the case?
 
Clearly we all know at least one person - Morrissey!

Indeed but I suspect he inserted the extra syllable so that the words fit the line. Plus he was probably poking fun at the sort of people who used to put their names in vinyl on the winderscreens of their cars.
 
This was the single that made my brother (a Smiths apostle from day 1) break up with Morrissey, never to return.

'He's just taking the piss now' was the observation made after playback of the cassette single.
Very harsh of your brother.
He's done a few of these ultra-lightweight songs, but I wonder - which was the first? Was 'My Love Life' the first where the lyrics seemed like they could be scribbled on the back of a stamp? "I know you love one person but why you don't you love two. Give a little something to me love life". Repeat 47 times, slowly fade out.
That’s a gorgeous song, though. Wouldn’t label it as lightweight at all. Not sure which one was the first one...Hairdresser on Fire? King Leer?
 
It's a contender for Morrissey's worst ever single and I presume he isn't too fond of it, as I don't think it's been performed live since 1997.

He has always used repetition for effect, but here there is no reason for repeating the song's title ad nauseam. There are no interesting lyrical ideas whatsoever and the "I could say more..." line is incredibly lazy. He had simply written nowhere near enough lyrics...

I think Morrissey was pushing the self-destruct button with this album, not for the first or last time.

Been thinking about it a lot more with these A-Z threads and I think I mentioned it in the Boy Racer thread, I really think some creative exhaustion was starting to show on Southpaw Grammar. From Kill Uncle through SG, he'd worked at a relatively fervent pace - which included 4 albums, other non-album singles, 2 large tours (KU & YA) and the smaller (in terms of dates) Boxers tour - with the overall quality being very strong. I know not everyone agrees that the quality dropped here, but my point is that it's understandable given the volume of work he turned out.

But whether this was intentional ("self-destruct button") or he was creatively spent is a good question.
 
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It's a great tune with a throwaway lyric. In other words, it's a classic Morrissey song.
A classic Moz song is the other way around, surely?
 
There are far worse Moz songs, but few more grating and annoying - it's so difficult to listen right the end. I switch off as soon as he starts with the frantic "Dagenham, Dagenham, Dagenham, Dagenham...". Just not something I'd ever play by choice.
 
Ha! I remember being really pissed off when "The Boy With the Thorn in His Side" came out because the lyrics seemed so flimsy.

(Obviously I was wrong, with hindsight.)
Horrifically!
 
He's done a few of these ultra-lightweight songs, but I wonder - which was the first? Was 'My Love Life' the first where the lyrics seemed like they could be scribbled on the back of a stamp? "I know you love one person but why you don't you love two. Give a little something to me love life". Repeat 47 times, slowly fade out.
Vicar in a Tutu?
Some Girls... has a very lightweight lyric, saved by beautiful music.
 
Been thinking about it a lot more with these A-Z threads and I think I mentioned it in the Boy Racer thread, I really think some creative exhaustion was starting to show on Southpaw Grammar. From Kill Uncle through SG, he'd worked at a relatively fervent pace - which included 4 albums, other non-album singles, 2 large tours (KU & YA) and the smaller (in terms of dates) Boxers tour - with the overall quality being very strong. I know not everyone agrees that the quality dropped here, but my point is that it's understandable given the volume of work he turned out.

But whether this was intentional ("self-destruct button") or he was creatively spent is a good question.
I think he was tired on a couple of fronts
 
Been thinking about it a lot more with these A-Z threads and I think I mentioned it in the Boy Racer thread, I really think some creative exhaustion was starting to show on Southpaw Grammar. From Kill Uncle through SG, he'd worked at a relatively fervent pace - which included 4 albums, other non-album singles, 2 large tours (KU & YA) and the smaller (in terms of dates) Boxers tour - with the overall quality being very strong. I know not everyone agrees that the quality dropped here, but my point is that it's understandable given the volume of work he turned out.

But whether this was intentional ("self-destruct button") or he was creatively spent is a good question.
This would make sense if he wrote the music, but he doesn't. He uses songwriters to compose the music and play the instruments. There was at least 5 different people writing the music in that 91 to 95 period so it's not really that much composing per songwriter. However, maybe on Southpaw, Alain and Boz just hadn't had time to write better pieces of music since the previous recording. There was some really great stuff on the other non-Southpaw '95 releases, though (Swallow, Boxers, Sunny, Nobody loves, You must please etc.). I don't know what order the '95 songs were written and recorded in but perhaps the Southpaw album songs were the most rushed. Also, the guitar-heavy arrangements were very different to most of his previous songs, so perhaps that disguised how flimsy they were, musically.
 
He's done a few of these ultra-lightweight songs, but I wonder - which was the first? Was 'My Love Life' the first where the lyrics seemed like they could be scribbled on the back of a stamp? "I know you love one person but why you don't you love two. Give a little something to me love life". Repeat 47 times, slowly fade out.
Ooh, I'm a big fan of My Love Life. OK it's slight but it's a dream of a song!
 
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